Anthropology Commons^™

A Statistical Investigation Of Nonmetric Vertebral Traits With A Skeletal Population Sample From The Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, Tiffany A. Sarfo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This paleogenetic study utilizes 17 nonmetric epigenetic vertebral traits to determine their suitability for studying past genetic relationships. The samples utilized were from Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis. Though infracranial nonmetric traits have a limited role in the study of past population genetics, this study has shown their value for elucidating past genetic patterns for intragroup analysis. The key to their utilization is to test the epigenetic factors (e.g., age, sex, symmetry and intertrait correlations) which were done using a number of statistical tests including Phi coefficient, G-test and the Odds ratio. This study utilized a novel set of spatial statistics to …